1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a customer premises equipment which is capable of recording a conversation between a user and certain calling or called parties. More particularly, it relates to customer premises equipment which automatically records the conversation between the user and the calling or called party based on a comparison of predetermined call related information relating to the calling or called party with predetermined entries in an appropriate table.
2. Background of Related Art
Customer premises equipment, e.g., telephone answering devices (i.e., answering machines) are useful devices for both the home and office environments. Many conventional telephone answering devices offer a feature commonly called xe2x80x9cconversational recordxe2x80x9d.
Conversational record allows users to manually initiate a record mode such that conversation on the telephone line will be recorded.
When the user of a telephone having conversational record capability places an outgoing telephone call or receives an incoming telephone call, they may manually activate the conversational record feature of the telephone answering device to begin recording the conversation between the user and the calling or called party. The telephone answering device will typically continue to record the conversation regardless of who is on the telephone line until the user deactivates the conversational record feature, or terminates the telephone call.
FIG. 5 illustrates a conventional telephone answering device 11 capable of answering an incoming telephone call on a telephone line 15 and having the capability for manual activation of a conversational record feature.
In FIG. 5, a telephone answering device 11 is connected to a telephone company central office 13 via a telephone line 15. A telephone line interface (TLI) 17 in the telephone answering device 11 provides the conventional isolation, DC and AC impedance as required by telephone company standards. The telephone line interface 17 also provides a ring detect signal to a controller 19. The ring detect signal indicates to the controller 19 the ringing of an incoming call on the telephone line 15.
The controller 19 can be any suitable processor, e.g., a microprocessor, a microcontroller, or a digital signal processor (DSP).
The controller 19 may include a dual tone multi frequency (DTMF) decoder 21 and/or a DTMF generator 23 to detect and generate, respectively, control signals relating to a telephone call.
The user can pre-record an appropriate outgoing greeting message into non-volatile memory in the conventional telephone answering device 11 using a microphone 37 and the voice recorder/playback audio module 27.
After a desired number of ring signals, the telephone answering device 11 causes the telephone line interface 17 to place the telephone line in an off-hook state, and instructs a voice recorder/playback audio module 27 to play an outgoing greeting message to the calling party on the telephone line 15.
Upon completion of the playback of the outgoing greeting message, the calling party typically can record a voice message in a non-volatile voice message memory 29, e.g., Flash memory, under the control of the controller 19.
A keypad 25 and/or a display 33 allow the user to select various modes of operation, including appropriate instruction and control to playback recorded voice messages through a speaker 39 connected to the voice recorder/playback audio module 27, or to record a current conversation in voice message memory 29.
The conventional telephone answering device 11 further includes a conversational record button 35 connected to the controller 19. The conversational record button 35 allows a user manual control of the activation and inactivation of the conversational record feature. For instance, to activate the conversational record feature when a user places an outgoing telephone call using a conventional telephone answering device 11, or when the user receives an incoming telephone call on the conventional telephone answering device 11, the user must manually depress or activate the conversational record button 35.
Activation of the conversational record feature begins the process of recording the conversation between the user and the calling or called party. The conventional telephone answering device 11 will typically continue to record the conversation until the user again manually depresses the conversational record button 35 to deactivate the conversational record feature, or terminates the telephone call.
In some instances, the user may forget to activate the conversational record feature on the telephone answering device 11 even though the user wished to record the telephone conversation. Moreover, the user might answer a calling party""s telephone call on an extension remote from the telephone answering device 11 such that the user can not activate the conversational record feature on the telephone answering device 11 from the extension telephone. Furthermore, an incoming telephone call might be a harassing telephone call and/or obscene telephone call, and the user may not recognize the caller or the content of the telephone call at the very beginning of the telephone call. In all these instances, with conventional manual activation of a conversational record feature, the user will have lost all or important portions of the conversation. Although the conversational record feature can be continuously activated to record all telephone calls, this technique is quite wasteful of storage resources.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a customer premises equipment which is capable of recording desired telephone conversations without the risk of losing all or important parts of the conversation.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a conversational record feature for customer premises equipment comprises a user defined conversational record table adapted to contain a plurality of entries relating to telephone calls for which activation of a conversational record feature is desired. An automatic conversations record module is adapted to compare one of received call related information and a dialed telephone number to each of the plurality of entries in the user defined conversational record table, and activate the conversational record feature if a match is determined.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a customer premises equipment comprises a telephone line interface, a voice recorder module, and a processor. An automatic conversational record module is operable by the processor to cause the voice recorder module to record a conversation present on the telephone line interface, and a user defined plurality of stored call related information relating to telephone calls for which conversational record is to be activated by the automatic conversational record module.
A method of activating a conversational record feature in accordance with another aspect of the present invention comprises receiving call related information regarding an incoming call. The received call related information is compared to at least one predetermined call related information. If a match is determined by the step of comparing, a conversational record feature is activated without further instruction required from a user.
Another method of activating a conversational record feature comprises detecting a dialed telephone number relating to an outgoing telephone call. The detected dialed telephone number is compared to at least one pre-determined telephone number. If a match is determined by the step of comparing, a conversational record feature is activated without further instruction required from a user.